The river press. [volume] (Fort Benton, Mont.) 1880-current, 1887-11-30


tuated the Falls from the start has been
calculated to make the place unpopular.
40 one is allowed to be luke-Warm. Ii
you did not take off your coat and work
fer Cascade county you we're rank enc
my to the whole outfit that wanted it. If
you ever express a doubt as to an imme-
diate jump of Great Falls to be the chief
city of Montana you have made person
as a personal insult; it is the most
''touchy'' crowd to be found in all of Mon
tana. A man might say in Helena that
he believed that that city had already
sean it's most palmy days, and they would
laugh at him and pity him. He might
say in Benton, the town Is dead; will new
er amount to anything, and the level
headed merchant will pay no attention,
but go right along and bring in and dis
! bur Sc merchandise by the thousands Of
tons. But if you do not stand in with
the Falls man and go him one better
when he says that the ores Of Butte and
Anaconda are to be worked at his town;
that-the railroad and money center is to
be removed from Helena to Cascade coun-
ty, and that the community is to have alb
solntely no future use for Fort Benton,
then he wants to fight; you are rank
hereto; you have no judgment, and are
using the most foul and underhanded
means to overthrow righteous work; it
can possibly be nothing but spite and
jealousy. This seems to have been my
sin. 1t is one of omission and not COM
mission. I have omitted to say that [ be-
ievGd the Falls was destined to corral the
business of the world, and that the other
towns of the territory would be only
struggling dependencies satisfied with the
little that might be cast to them from in
side the fence I am not to be allowed
the honest opinion, that Great Falls sand
Wiched in between the great mining cen
ters Of Butte and Helena on the south
and the natural commercial center at
Benton on the north, will necessarily have
slower growth than would otherwise
have been the case. It is not enough for
me tc say, as have, that Great Falls,
with G backing it has, may in time Gre
ate industries that will make it a great
and prosperous city. IF do not say that
Great Falls is to Immediately paralyze
every other business and manufacturing
community within 500 miles, then Mr..
Gibson says that [ repeatedly declare
that an important town can never be
built at the falls Of the Missouri" Such
positions are petty and unworthy of hu-
man beings who have arrived at mans es-
tate.
Possibly my chief sin lies in seeing and
claiming that from necessity of location
the commercial center Of Montana is
eventually to be found at Fort Benton.
From first to last and always, even
through it's darkest days have never
been shaken in this belief for thefuture of
Fort Benton. There are men now resid-
ing at the Falls who have laughed me to
scorn FOR ever believing that the Manitoba
road would touch this point, and then
after this was done who have thought me
crazy for supposing that any business
could possibly be done at the old town
when the road was completed to the new
What are the facts after the road has
passed through these towns and been
completed to Helena? Fort Benton after
shipping in some 5000 tons of freight this
summe: by boat, and after shipping out
half as much in the country's produce has
already paid in cash to the Manitoba rail-
way $4,000 for freight received, and sent
out over 200 cars of live stock which at
S125 per car has brought in to that COM
pany $4,000 more. In three months S75,-
600 in business at the very low rates given
does not look as if the railroad was de-
stroying the river town.
There is more gall and wormwood in
this showing to the average Great Falls
man than can we'll be conceived by the
outsider. I see nothing as yet to make
ne depart from my position. believe
that Fort Benton will always sell goods
lower than any other town as far west as
it is and this side of the range. To the
producer and consumer of Montana it will
always be the best place to trade. Great
Falls viii buy goods in the future, as it
does now, in Fort Benton. Fort Benton
will help Great Falls and Great Falls will
help Fort Benton. They will grow as com
plements of each other Great Falls to-
day is its own greatest enemy. The Tri-
bune accuses me of prejudice and dis
play of intense egotism." The Great
Falls people have not left enough of these
qualities lying around loose for any
one to get any on the outside.
Il Great Falls was without that sore
head element which left Fort Benton be-
cause it would not secure to them that po-
sition socially, politically or profession